{"id":85155,"date":"2026-02-10T19:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftech-news.com\/en\/?p=85155"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:04:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:04:35","slug":"ai-tipping-point-reached-in-saudi-arabia-as-banks-move-from-experimentation-to-execution-finds-finastra-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftech-news.com\/en\/2026\/02\/10\/ai-tipping-point-reached-in-saudi-arabia-as-banks-move-from-experimentation-to-execution-finds-finastra-research\/","title":{"rendered":"AI tipping point reached in Saudi Arabia as banks move from experimentation to execution, finds Finastra Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>AI, modernization, and rising customer expectations move to the top of the agenda<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Security investment expected to rise sharply in 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Industry confidence remains high despite disruption<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Riyadh,Gulf Tech News<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> Financial institutions in Saudi Arabia have reached a decisive AI tipping point, according to new research from<a href=\"https:\/\/www.finastra.com\/\"> Finastra<\/a>, a global leader in financial services software. Just 1% of financial institutions in Saudi Arabia, and 2% globally, now report no use or no plans to use artificial intelligence, signaling a clear shift from experimentation to execution as AI becomes embedded across core banking, payments, lending, and compliance functions.<br>The Finastra Financial Services State of the Nation 2026 report shows institutions in Saudi Arabia increasing focused on scaling AI responsibly, strengthening resilience, and delivering more consistent customer experiences as digital transformation accelerates and expectation rise. The 2026 research surveyed senior professionals at financial institutions and banks across 11 global markets, including Saudi Arabia. (France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UAE, UK, the U.S., and Vietnam.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key findings include:<br>\u2022 AI adoption is near universal \u2013 Nearly all financial institutions in Saudi Arabia are now using AI. 46% cite improving accuracy and reducing errors as their primary objective, while Saudi Arabia ranks highest globally for framing AI as a lever for competitive advantage (41%), signaling ambition to leapfrog peers through digital transformation.<br>\u2022 Modernization has moved to the top of the agenda \u2013 Nine in ten respondents (87%), both globally and in Saudi Arabia, plan to invest in modernization over the next 12 months. These investments are driven by the need to scale AI, strengthen operational resilience, and deliver more reliable customer experiences. Partnerships with fintech providers are the default approach for close to half (45%) of institutions in Saudi Arabia.<br>\u2022 Customer experience becomes the front line \u2013 Financial institutions in Saudi Arabia rank highly compared to global peers in providing personalized recommendations, while investment in customer experience and personalization is expected to increase significantly in the year ahead. 93% of Saudi institutions are expecting to increase investment in this area, reflecting how central service quality and trust have become to competitiveness.<br>\u2022 Industry confidence remains strong \u2013 Despite ongoing disruption, optimism in Saudi Arabia is high. 95% of respondents express high levels of optimism about the opportunities ahead at a personal level, compared to 87% globally. Similarly, 92% are optimistic about the outlook for their institutions as technology and operating models continue to evolve, versus 86% globally.<br>\u2022 Security investments rise sharply \u2013 Security continues to climb the agenda as reliance on digital platforms deepens. Financial institutions globally expect security investment to increase by an average of 40% in 2026, driven by escalating cyber threats, tighter regulatory scrutiny, and growing dependence on technology across core operations.<br>\u2022 Cloud adoption underpins modern transformation \u2013 58% of respondents in Saudi Arabia state that they host most of their software stack on cloud solutions, reflecting its role in lowering costs, increasing scalability, and enabling personalization, compliance, and faster innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTechnology decisions now sit at the center of trust, resilience, and customer experience,\u201d said Chris Walters, CEO of Finastra. \u201cInstitutions in Saudi Arabia are moving decisively beyond experimentation, focusing on responsible AI, modernization and security to deliver reliable, personalized financial services at scale.\u201d He added: \u201cWe look forward to working closely with our customers as strategic partners as they navigate this new landscape with modern, secure and innovative software solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AI, modernization, and rising customer expectations move to the top of the agenda Security investment expected to rise sharply in 2026 Industry confidence remains high despite disruption Riyadh,Gulf Tech News Financial institutions in Saudi Arabia have reached a decisive AI tipping point, according to new research from Finastra, a global leader in financial services software. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[5173,5172,3131,1946],"class_list":["post-85155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communications-technology","tag-banks","tag-financial-institutions","tag-financial-services","tag-finastra-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ai-tipping-point-reached-in-saudi-arabia-as-banks-move-<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Financial institutions in Saudi Arabia have reached a decisive AI tipping point, according to new research from Finastra, a global leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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